


Under the January Light

by dreams_for_spring



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Jon steals Sansa from Winterfell, Jon was not raised with the Starks, Jonsa Drabble Fest, Prophecy, day 2: stolen, day 3: legends, wilding AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:15:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24116392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreams_for_spring/pseuds/dreams_for_spring
Summary: Jon’s eyes move from Mance to her, as he bends over to carefully remove the ropes that bind her. “Don’t try to run again, my lady,” he whispers. “There’s worse things in these woods than me.”
Relationships: Jon Snow/Sansa Stark
Comments: 32
Kudos: 124
Collections: Jon x Sansa Drabble





	Under the January Light

**Author's Note:**

> Title liberally paraphrased from Sonnet LXVI by Pablo Neruda

Sunlight shines through cracks in the dark tent, fine yellow-white rays illuminating two men standing before her, though only the younger man is familiar.

She had first met him at a feast in Winterfell all those weeks ago. He’d been so handsome and gallant, a perfect knight; her Jon. He had swept her off her feet for dance after dance, and later that night, he had played such sweet, sorrowful songs upon his harp – before stealing her away under cover of dark.

Jon gives her a small smile and brushes the hair from her face with painful care. She wants to hate him, but finds she cannot.

“This the firstborn daughter of Eddard Stark?” The older man asks appraisingly.

“Aye Mance, I stole her myself,” replies Jon, with a voice like firewine – all eager conviction and pride. Over the weeks he’s let these small pieces of himself slip, building a picture of a man who is kind and gentle, and has so much to prove.

It jars against everything that he tells her he is, everything he seems to be, and almost makes her regret the trouble she has caused on their journey north.

Jon’s eyes move from Mance to her, as he bends over to carefully remove the ropes that bind her. “Don’t try to run again, my lady,” he whispers. “There’s worse things in these woods than me.”

His words send a shiver of sudden realization down her back that threatens to drown her like a wave. There will be no more escape attempts – there is no way back home alone to Winterfell.

The faces of her brothers and sister, of her mother and father flash by in her mind, before they disappear. Something deep inside breaks like a dam, and hot, angry tears burst forth.

A thumb reaches out to wipe the salt from her cheeks, small ridges of a fingerprint tracing across her skin. She curses his gentle touch – it would be easier to hate him if he were cruel.

“Take me back,” she sobs softly. “Let me go home, please.”

Pain and guilt streak across Jon’s face as he struggles for words. “I will, if you truly wish it. But I hope once you understand, you will stay.”

He pauses and looks into her with eyes dark and fathomless as Winterfell's hot pools. “There is a legend that speaks of how to save us from the Long Night. You were destined to be brought here, beyond the Wall, as I was too.”

Fear twists inside as she remembers Old Nan’s tales from when she was young – terrible, gruesome stories of what lived in the shadows of night, and the sacrifice that stopped them.

When she finally speaks, her voice comes as a shaky, broken whisper. “Are you going to kill me, Jon?”

He steps forward and cradles her face with gentle, workworn hands, sparking a rolling calm that battles against her fear in equal measure. 

“No sweet girl,” he murmurs, “I’m going to marry you.”

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on tumblr [@sonderlust45](https://sonderlust45.tumblr.com/) =)


End file.
